


a better fate than wisdom

by badtemperedchocolate



Category: Bon Appétit Test Kitchen RPF, Chef RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-17 11:51:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20620580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badtemperedchocolate/pseuds/badtemperedchocolate
Summary: When it comes to Brad and Claire, there’s ‘obvious’ and then there’s ‘seriously, are you kidding me.’





	a better fate than wisdom

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you’re feeling better, professortennant. Drink wourder and eat garlic.
> 
> This is, as always, 100% fictional.

It didn’t really start out as a competition.

It started as an offhand comment one day when Vince and Matt were talking editing. They started discussing their respective experiences working on _It’s Alive_, and Matt had made an offhand comment about the number of times Claire and Brad kept popping up in each other’s videos.

“Oh, don’t even _start_ with me.” Vince rolled his eyes strenuously. “You know how many times I had to trim that shit down?”

“What do you mean?”

Vince turned back to his laptop and opened a folder. “See that?”

Matt squinted. “Does that say ‘married?’”

“Yep. This is the ‘married’ folder.” Vince opened it to reveal a handful of video thumbnails. “I had to cut out _so many_ things from these videos. Claire and Brad come off like they’re already married. You think the final edits are bad? Look at what I had to cut out.”

He double-clicks on one to open it, and Matt crosses his arms, watching as Brad leans over Claire’s station, his hands curled over hers as they put together whatever little contraption Brad’s dreamed up for her today. At one point, he says something, and Claire laughs, looking up at him through her lashes, a soft blush coloring her cheeks.

The clip ends, and Matt blinked. “They do this _all the time.”_

“Right?!” Vince groaned. “I don’t think they know they’re doing it, you know?”

“You remember that time Brad cut his hand?” Matt asked. “So I was filming, and I was about to cut and help, but then Claire appears – I swear to God, she was all the way across the kitchen, but she came running over with the first aid kit, and she spent the next five minutes caressing his hand like a fucking fairy godmother. It wasn’t even a deep cut. I had to cut almost all of it, because I went to watch it back, and I swear, it looked like they were about to kiss every four seconds.”

* * *

Editors being editors, Matt and Vince start trading clips. Every once in a while, they swap Brad-and-Claire-look-a-little-too-involved scenes, the scenes that don’t make it into videos. And it’s not a _competition_, really. It’s just…fun to get the upper hand. Matt sends Vince a clip of Brad and Claire huddled over a stand mixer, faces just inches apart, Claire biting her lip as her gaze flicks up to Brad. Vince responds with a still from another video, Brad and Claire at totally separate stations, way apart, but totally fucking _gazing_ at each other like they’re hopelessly smitten. It’s disgusting. And totally, completely typical.

It’s nothing. It’s just something they do to amuse themselves.

* * *

Brad’s been pushing to get Claire put on one of the location videos for a while, and eventually Adam agrees (it’s no secret that videos with both Claire and Brad get incredible traffic).

After a bunch of schedule stuff gets hectic, Dan has a family thing, chaos happens, and the kitchen is a little weird, Vince gets tasked to go with Brad and Claire to the upper peninsula of Michigan. There’s an old Finnish-American bakery in a small town on the shores of Lake Superior, and the fourth-generation family that runs it is delighted to have the _It’s Alive_ crew come to visit and film there.

Vince texts Matt a few photos when they arrive. Gorgeous lake views, a quaint little bakery, deep dark forests and a long stretch of rocky beach. _Check this shit out. We have lakeside cabins. This place is the best._

Matt huffs. Some people get all the luck. He taps out a quick reply. _Have fun_.

* * *

Carla and Andy and Chris have their own projects, and Matt finds himself busy for the next few days, running back and forth between kitchen stations. The test kitchen’s never dull, but everyone concedes that when Brad’s gone, it’s quieter. A little less chaotic. And it smells less garlicky.

He wraps a session for Carla one afternoon and heads for his computer, collapsing into his desk chair with a long sigh. Damn. _Work is exhausting_.

When he pulls up his email, Matt finds a message from Vince. _Went out to get some B-roll and run mic tests last night. Got some good footage._

He opens the video file. The still is a stunning shot over Lake Superior, the kind of natural light a videographer sells his soul to find. The sunset over the water is gorgeous, a riotous display of colors that lights up his monitor even without the polish of post-production editing.

After a moment, the camera swings; Vince must have heard something. After a moment, the image focuses again, showing two people walking along the lakeshore. Matt chuckles; he’d know these two anywhere. Claire’s smaller frame is dwarfed by Brad’s. Framing their shots is a nightmare sometimes. Vince and Matt have agreed that they’re not going to point out to anyone that Brad keeps leaning over her kitchen island. It may be weirdly intimate, but it sure makes framing the two of them easier.

They’re walking together along the shore of Lake Superior in the bright warm glow of sunset, arms just barely brushing. Each one keeps sneaking glances at the other, and at one point, he sees Claire smile shyly, looking up at Brad as she tucks her hair behind her ear. Matt rolls his eyes. _Jeez, these two._

The two of them walk out on the pier, out over the water. The breeze catches Claire’s hair, but before she can react, Brad reaches up, just barely hesitating before he gently brushes a strand of hair from her face. His hand lingers on her cheek, and her eyes go wide. It’s all so still, very gentle, and it’s like everything stops as Brad leans in to kiss her.

Matt stops. Blinks. Pauses the video for a moment, staring at his monitor, looking at Brad and Claire’s first kiss. Wow. _Wow._

After a surreptitious look around to make sure no one’s watching over his shoulder – no one is – Matt hits _play_ again.

Brad pulls away, looks down at Claire like he’s asking her something, and then she smiles. She beams up at him, gold sunset all around them, and then she stretches up on her toes, wraps her arms around his neck, and pulls him down to kiss her again.

Even through the video, he can see them both laughing, bright and uncaring, and Brad looks happier than Hunzi’s ever seen him. Without warning, he sweeps Claire up in his arms, cradling her against his chest. Her yelp of surprise is audible on the mics, and she’s laughing, clutching at his shirt, until he takes a step towards the edge of the dock and she realizes what he’s going to do.

“No! – no, no no way! _Brad!”_

She shrieks as he tosses her into the water, then leaps in himself with a huge splash, sending waves rippling across the water.

Claire surfaces a few seconds later, sputtering and wiping her wet hair from her face, and Brad appears beside her with a shit-eating grin.

Whatever Claire says to him is lost to the mics, as she splashes him with water. When Brad catches her hand and pulls her close, she doesn’t fight back. She wraps her legs around his waist, buries her fingers in his hair, and it takes about four seconds for the kiss to go from innocent to heated, lips and tongues and hands getting frantic.

Matt’s starting to get uncomfortable – should he really be watching this? at work? – when Claire pulls back. She’s saying something, and Brad gives her a rueful grin, nods.

They wade out of the lake together, shaking out the excess water in their clothes, and Claire wraps her arms around herself, her teeth clenched. Oh, right. Of course. Lake Superior’s freezing.

Brad wraps an arm around her, leaning in to steal one more kiss, and the two of them walk off in the sunset, disappearing into the trees. The camera sits for a moment, then swings around to show Vince looking down at it, a smug grin on his face.

It cuts to black, the clip ended, and Matt lets out a short laugh.

He shakes his head, pulling up Vince’s email and hitting _reply._

_You win._

* * *

A week later, Matt walks into the test kitchen to see Claire tying on her apron. “Hey, Claire! How was Michigan?”

“It was great.” She beams. “Did we miss anything here?”

“The usual.”

“Right.”

“Hunzi! Hey!” Matt turns to see Brad emerging from the walk-in, backwards cap and everything. “Long time no see, buddy.”

“Hey, Brad.”

Claire looks up, and the moment her eyes meet Brad’s, it’s like everything else stops. Her face softens, her smile gets shy, and Brad looks like he’s completely forgotten where he was going.

Matt doesn’t _mean_ to laugh. It just sort of escapes him. Both Claire and Brad look back at him, startled, and he figures, well, why pretend?

“_Jeez_, you guys.” He shakes his head. “It’s about time.”


End file.
